Rugby League Challenge Cup semi-final: Leeds Rhinos v St Helens

Leeds Rhinos are a breath away from defending the Challenge Cup, and are odds-on at 8/13 with Coral to beat St Helens in the semi-final.

The West Yorkshire side go into the game against St Helens having won five of their last six matches. Rhinos’ player of the month Kallum Watkins though, is all too aware of the threat posed by the current Super League holders.

“We managed to get a good result against a tough Catalans side,” Watkins said. “They are a big side and they brought a couple of players back from injury, which was going to make it tough for us, but there were moments when we were very good and we managed to get a great result.

“It is really important to go into the semi-final playing well and Catalans were a good test for us. Their away form hasn’t been up to scratch or where they want it to be, but we remember from last year how well they can play.

“It was close at home last time in the league and they beat us in the play-offs, so we knew we had to perform well. We did that for most of the game,” continued Watkins.

“There were some moments when we weren’t as good, but a lot of credit for that has to go to Catalans. They are a great side and they can punish you if you aren’t doing the right things. But it was a great result and it’ll give us massive confidence going into such a huge game on Friday.”

The centre is 11/10 to cross the whitewash anytime, or 10/1 to in the first scorer market, while man-of-the-moment Tom Briscoe who scored a hat-trick last time out in the 36-22 win over Catalans, is 9/1 to breach the in-goal area first.

St Helens dished out a hiding to fellow Challenge Cup semi-finalists Hull KR last time out with Adam Swift and Joe Greenwood both crossing twice. They are 8/1 and 20/1 respectively to score anytime, while Travis Burns who also had a stormer is, 10/3 in the same market.